SILForum2008 004.
Agatha van Ginkel
Educational Values and Material Development
1
Educational Values and Material Development
Agatha van Ginkel 1
The intent of this paper is to create awareness about underlying values of educational systems.
Understanding of the value behind the system will contribute to better material design and better
relationships with local educational authorities and teachers.
Introduction
Everyone has his or her own ideas about the purpose of education. One should not be surprised to find out
that different societies assign different purposes to education. People have certain expectations of education, and those expectations in turn influence their teaching and learning approaches. When outside
experts enter a foreign education system, they might soon find themselves making critical remarks about
the education system as teaching does not take place the way they value it. When this happens it is quite
possible that the purpose of education in the mind of the outside expert is different from the country’s
educational purpose. This might lead to misunderstandings and frustrations for both the experts and the
people they have come to assist.
Although the focus of this paper is primary education, an understanding of the underlying value of an
education system is also useful for people working in adult literacy or any kind of training programme.
Adults who attend an adult literacy class or training have expectations of education that are based on their
experience with education, either from personal experience or through their children or neighbours’ children. So in order to develop a literacy programme or training that would take into account expectations
on the side of receivers, it is good to understand the purpose of education in the country.
First, we review the three main values that could underlie an education system and show how these
values could be realized in an education system and curriculum. Then we look at the goals of a specific
educational system and relate them to the underlying educational values to identify the purpose of the
education system.
1
Agatha van Ginkel wrote this article in 2002. She has been working for the Kenyan NBTO Bible Translation and Literacy East
Africa (BTL) since 1995. She worked as a literacy consultant for five language groups in Kenya. She studied theology and has
a teaching degree. She worked on a Masters Degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). Agatha helps develop
curricula for adult literacy and Scripture Use and supplementary MT materials for Kenyan primary schools.
SIL Forum for Language Fieldwork 2008-004, September 2008
© Agatha van Ginkel and SIL International. Used by permission.
Agatha van Ginkel
Educational Values and Material Development
2
The purposes of education
Education is done with a purpose and tends to relate to three values (Littlewood 1991):
1. Passing on valuable knowledge and culture
2. Preparing learners as members of the society
3. Developing learners as individuals
Often an education system is based on a combination of these values, sometimes focusing more on one
than the other. These values set the goals for the different subjects. The first value, passing on valuable
knowledge and culture, will often be reflected in a system-based curriculum. The second, preparing
learners as members of the society, will often be reflected in a function-based curriculum, while the third,
developing learners as individuals, is reflected in a process-based curriculum.
How would this translate into the syllabus for the subject of language? Littlewood (1991) made a
comparison of curricula with their underlying values for teaching a foreign language, summarised in the
table below:
Comparison of Curricula
System-based
Function-based
Process-based
Main goal
To enable the learners to
master grammar and
vocabulary of a language
To equip learners to fulfil their
communicative needs in an
appropriate range of situations
To create a context which will
stimulate the potential for
natural language growth
Objectives
Defined with reference to
the individual structures or
items of vocabulary
Defined mainly in behavioural
terms; expressing or understanding communicative functions or
notions, acquiring useful skills
Expressed in non-language
terms, e.g. topics, tasks or
problems to be solved
Syllabus
Attempts to select and
sequence these structures
and vocabulary using
criteria as complexity,
importance, teachability,
etc.
Selects and sequences these
functions or skills according to
criteria such as usefulness,
complexity of the language they
require, etc.
Provides a sequence of
contexts for learning, roughly
graded according to the
demands they make on
communication skills rather
than by strict linguistic criteria
Materials
Provide learners with
examples of language
structures and vocabulary
in texts devised specially
for the purpose
Provide examples of language
being used for a variety of
communicative purposes
Provide a focus for using
language in order to exchange
meanings about these topics
Classroom
activities
Provide learners with
opportunities to understand and use the
language forms as
accurately as possible
Provide learners with opportunities to practise conveying and
understanding meaning
Consist mainly of a communicative use of language
and a minimum of language
correction or form-oriented
practice
Two education systems, two different values
Once one is aware that there are different values that underlie education systems, it would be a logical
next step to analyse the educational values of both the country one is working in and the country one
comes from. This analysis will give insight into the education system and practices that one observes and
therefore will enhance:
Agatha van Ginkel
Educational Values and Material Development
3
•
Designing of materials that fit the purpose of the education system of that country.
•
Understanding reactions of people towards materials or ideas developed by outsiders, since
the outsider might come from an educational system which has a different value system
behind it. That is why it is also important to understand the underlying value of one’s own
education system.
•
Explaining to people why a certain focus or method has been chosen. On the other hand, it
enhances the outside expert’s understanding of why the insiders may be rejecting the
materials he/she is proposing.
Kenyan primary education example
The Kenyan primary education system could serve as an example in an attempt to apply the above.
The education syllabus for primary education for Kenya states multiple goals for education at primary
level. However, there appears to be one fundamental goal which is “to prepare and equip youth to be
happy and useful members of the Kenyan society. To be happy they must learn and accept national values
and to be useful they must actively work towards the maintenance and development of this society”
(Waithaka 1992:vi).
This goal is broken down into subgoals, including:
1. Education must foster a sense of nationhood and promote national unity.
2. Education should meet the economic and social needs of national development, equipping the
youth of the country to play an effective productive role in the life of the nation.
3. Education must prepare children for those changes in attitude and relationships that are necessary
for the smooth process of a rapidly developing modern economy.
4. Education must provide opportunities for the fullest development of individual talents and
personality.
5. Education should promote social equality and foster a sense of social responsibility.
6. Education should respect, foster, and develop Kenya's rich and varied cultures.
7. Education should foster positive attitudes to other countries and to the international community.
When analysing these goals according to the three educational values mentioned above, it becomes apparent that preparing learners as members of the society is the most salient goal. Only one goal focuses on
the passing on of valuable knowledge and skills, and only one of them focuses on the development of the
individual learner. From this analysis, one would expect a curriculum that would lean towards a functionbased curriculum.
When analysing the education system of a West European country one often finds that the underlying
value is to develop learners as individuals. The curriculum that supports such a value tends to focus on
facilitating natural development and would lean towards a process-based curriculum. When someone with
such a background comes to work in a country such as Kenya, it is quite likely that learning activities will
be interpreted differently. This could become a potential area of misunderstanding and perhaps even
conflict with the local people if one was not aware of these differences. For example, a learning activity
like group discussion where learners have a lot of input and the teacher facilitates the process would be a
Agatha van Ginkel
Educational Values and Material Development
4
valued activity where the focus is to develop the individual. However, in an education system that has a
main focus on a learner becoming a useful member of the society, such an activity might not be appreciated. On the other hand, other factors, such as cultural norms, may also contribute to the dislike of such
an activity.
The purpose of education related to the language curricula
In order to find out how the goals of primary education are reflected in the curriculum, and in order to
make this paper most useful for the development of language materials, the subjects concerned with
languages in the Kenyan education system will again be used as an example.
In lower primary education in Kenya three languages are taught: the mother tongue, Kiswahili, and
English. It is planned that in lower primary classes the children are taught in their mother tongue and will
learn Kiswahili and English as subjects. In upper primary classes English is the language of instruction.
Each language has its own purpose, as described below.
The purpose of teaching a child to read and write in his mother tongue is “to provide a means by which he
can learn and understand the value and concerns of his society” (Waithaka 1992:143). Mother tongue
serves as a bridge between home and school, but it is also a useful mechanism for laying the foundation
of literacy and numeracy skills in other languages. It is mainly taught as a help to learn other languages,
but it is hoped that through the mother tongue the learner will also appreciate and respect the culture and
cultural heritage of his own people. Its underlying purpose, therefore, is to pass on valuable knowledge
and culture.
While the purpose of MT instruction is clearly stated by Waithaka, the purpose for teaching Kiswahili is
not specified. Nevertheless, learners are expected to be able to hear, understand, read, write, and speak
Kiswahili after eight years of study. Since Kiswahili is the predominant language of wider communication for many people in Kenya, the underlying purpose seems to be to prepare learners to be functional
members of the wider society.
The purpose of teaching English in lower primary is to enable the learner to use English as a medium of
communication in the fourth year of primary school. At the end of primary school a learner should have
enough grasp of English to:
•
Listen, understand, and respond appropriately.
•
Be able to use correct pronunciation, stress, and intonation to be understood.
•
Be able to read and understand instructions and to read for information and pleasure.
•
Be able to write to express his ideas meaningfully and legibly in English.
To summarize, it seems that the purpose of teaching the mother tongue fits in with the goal of passing on
valuable knowledge of culture. However, preparing the learner to become a useful member of the society
appears to be the purpose of teaching Kiswahili and English as LWCs. The content of the teaching
materials used for these subjects also supports this assumption.
The implications for material development
If an outside expert were going to assist in developing materials for the subject of mother tongue in the
Kenyan education system, it would be useful to know that the main purpose of education in general is to
Agatha van Ginkel
Educational Values and Material Development
5
prepare pupils to become useful members of the society. On the other hand, the subject of mother tongue
is also seen as a valuable means to pass on general knowledge in the lower levels of primary school and
knowledge about culture. Within this context there is space for the material designer to explore possibilities to create materials that fit the underlying value of the education system. In Kenya the primary
education syllabus gives good guidelines for the content of the materials. The applications would be in
the learning activities that would be appropriate for the context. It is likely that activities where the
teacher becomes a facilitator would not be appreciated. There are, of course, more variables to consider,
such as actual teaching practice, available resources, linguistic suitability of methods, etc. But if the
underlying value is ignored by the designer, it might lead to materials that will either be rejected by the
people as being foreign, or the teachers will be creative and transform them to what they believe the
purpose of education is and teach them accordingly.
There is much more to explore in education systems. The article in Notes on Literacy 25:3–4 by Berry
(1999) about ideologies in literacy programmes touches on some issues, but it would also be useful to
explore how an education system sees the transfer of knowledge based on “knowledge centred'” and
“person centred” paradigms (Roberts 1998). This would again be useful in developing teacher-training
programmes and in designing materials.
Bibliography
Berry, K. 1999. Literacy programs: Getting the ideology right. Notes on Literacy 25:3–4.
Littlewood, W. 1991. Curriculum design. Applied linguistics and language teaching, by R. Bowers,
and C. J. Brumfit. London. Macmillan and The British Council, 11–22.
Roberts, J. 1998. Language teacher education. London: Arnold.
Waithaka, J. M. 1992. Primary education syllabus. Volume 1. Nairobi: Kenya Institute of
Education.
Educational Values and Material Development
1
Educational Values and Material Development
Agatha van Ginkel 1
The intent of this paper is to create awareness about underlying values of educational systems.
Understanding of the value behind the system will contribute to better material design and better
relationships with local educational authorities and teachers.
Introduction
Everyone has his or her own ideas about the purpose of education. One should not be surprised to find out
that different societies assign different purposes to education. People have certain expectations of education, and those expectations in turn influence their teaching and learning approaches. When outside
experts enter a foreign education system, they might soon find themselves making critical remarks about
the education system as teaching does not take place the way they value it. When this happens it is quite
possible that the purpose of education in the mind of the outside expert is different from the country’s
educational purpose. This might lead to misunderstandings and frustrations for both the experts and the
people they have come to assist.
Although the focus of this paper is primary education, an understanding of the underlying value of an
education system is also useful for people working in adult literacy or any kind of training programme.
Adults who attend an adult literacy class or training have expectations of education that are based on their
experience with education, either from personal experience or through their children or neighbours’ children. So in order to develop a literacy programme or training that would take into account expectations
on the side of receivers, it is good to understand the purpose of education in the country.
First, we review the three main values that could underlie an education system and show how these
values could be realized in an education system and curriculum. Then we look at the goals of a specific
educational system and relate them to the underlying educational values to identify the purpose of the
education system.
1
Agatha van Ginkel wrote this article in 2002. She has been working for the Kenyan NBTO Bible Translation and Literacy East
Africa (BTL) since 1995. She worked as a literacy consultant for five language groups in Kenya. She studied theology and has
a teaching degree. She worked on a Masters Degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). Agatha helps develop
curricula for adult literacy and Scripture Use and supplementary MT materials for Kenyan primary schools.
SIL Forum for Language Fieldwork 2008-004, September 2008
© Agatha van Ginkel and SIL International. Used by permission.
Agatha van Ginkel
Educational Values and Material Development
2
The purposes of education
Education is done with a purpose and tends to relate to three values (Littlewood 1991):
1. Passing on valuable knowledge and culture
2. Preparing learners as members of the society
3. Developing learners as individuals
Often an education system is based on a combination of these values, sometimes focusing more on one
than the other. These values set the goals for the different subjects. The first value, passing on valuable
knowledge and culture, will often be reflected in a system-based curriculum. The second, preparing
learners as members of the society, will often be reflected in a function-based curriculum, while the third,
developing learners as individuals, is reflected in a process-based curriculum.
How would this translate into the syllabus for the subject of language? Littlewood (1991) made a
comparison of curricula with their underlying values for teaching a foreign language, summarised in the
table below:
Comparison of Curricula
System-based
Function-based
Process-based
Main goal
To enable the learners to
master grammar and
vocabulary of a language
To equip learners to fulfil their
communicative needs in an
appropriate range of situations
To create a context which will
stimulate the potential for
natural language growth
Objectives
Defined with reference to
the individual structures or
items of vocabulary
Defined mainly in behavioural
terms; expressing or understanding communicative functions or
notions, acquiring useful skills
Expressed in non-language
terms, e.g. topics, tasks or
problems to be solved
Syllabus
Attempts to select and
sequence these structures
and vocabulary using
criteria as complexity,
importance, teachability,
etc.
Selects and sequences these
functions or skills according to
criteria such as usefulness,
complexity of the language they
require, etc.
Provides a sequence of
contexts for learning, roughly
graded according to the
demands they make on
communication skills rather
than by strict linguistic criteria
Materials
Provide learners with
examples of language
structures and vocabulary
in texts devised specially
for the purpose
Provide examples of language
being used for a variety of
communicative purposes
Provide a focus for using
language in order to exchange
meanings about these topics
Classroom
activities
Provide learners with
opportunities to understand and use the
language forms as
accurately as possible
Provide learners with opportunities to practise conveying and
understanding meaning
Consist mainly of a communicative use of language
and a minimum of language
correction or form-oriented
practice
Two education systems, two different values
Once one is aware that there are different values that underlie education systems, it would be a logical
next step to analyse the educational values of both the country one is working in and the country one
comes from. This analysis will give insight into the education system and practices that one observes and
therefore will enhance:
Agatha van Ginkel
Educational Values and Material Development
3
•
Designing of materials that fit the purpose of the education system of that country.
•
Understanding reactions of people towards materials or ideas developed by outsiders, since
the outsider might come from an educational system which has a different value system
behind it. That is why it is also important to understand the underlying value of one’s own
education system.
•
Explaining to people why a certain focus or method has been chosen. On the other hand, it
enhances the outside expert’s understanding of why the insiders may be rejecting the
materials he/she is proposing.
Kenyan primary education example
The Kenyan primary education system could serve as an example in an attempt to apply the above.
The education syllabus for primary education for Kenya states multiple goals for education at primary
level. However, there appears to be one fundamental goal which is “to prepare and equip youth to be
happy and useful members of the Kenyan society. To be happy they must learn and accept national values
and to be useful they must actively work towards the maintenance and development of this society”
(Waithaka 1992:vi).
This goal is broken down into subgoals, including:
1. Education must foster a sense of nationhood and promote national unity.
2. Education should meet the economic and social needs of national development, equipping the
youth of the country to play an effective productive role in the life of the nation.
3. Education must prepare children for those changes in attitude and relationships that are necessary
for the smooth process of a rapidly developing modern economy.
4. Education must provide opportunities for the fullest development of individual talents and
personality.
5. Education should promote social equality and foster a sense of social responsibility.
6. Education should respect, foster, and develop Kenya's rich and varied cultures.
7. Education should foster positive attitudes to other countries and to the international community.
When analysing these goals according to the three educational values mentioned above, it becomes apparent that preparing learners as members of the society is the most salient goal. Only one goal focuses on
the passing on of valuable knowledge and skills, and only one of them focuses on the development of the
individual learner. From this analysis, one would expect a curriculum that would lean towards a functionbased curriculum.
When analysing the education system of a West European country one often finds that the underlying
value is to develop learners as individuals. The curriculum that supports such a value tends to focus on
facilitating natural development and would lean towards a process-based curriculum. When someone with
such a background comes to work in a country such as Kenya, it is quite likely that learning activities will
be interpreted differently. This could become a potential area of misunderstanding and perhaps even
conflict with the local people if one was not aware of these differences. For example, a learning activity
like group discussion where learners have a lot of input and the teacher facilitates the process would be a
Agatha van Ginkel
Educational Values and Material Development
4
valued activity where the focus is to develop the individual. However, in an education system that has a
main focus on a learner becoming a useful member of the society, such an activity might not be appreciated. On the other hand, other factors, such as cultural norms, may also contribute to the dislike of such
an activity.
The purpose of education related to the language curricula
In order to find out how the goals of primary education are reflected in the curriculum, and in order to
make this paper most useful for the development of language materials, the subjects concerned with
languages in the Kenyan education system will again be used as an example.
In lower primary education in Kenya three languages are taught: the mother tongue, Kiswahili, and
English. It is planned that in lower primary classes the children are taught in their mother tongue and will
learn Kiswahili and English as subjects. In upper primary classes English is the language of instruction.
Each language has its own purpose, as described below.
The purpose of teaching a child to read and write in his mother tongue is “to provide a means by which he
can learn and understand the value and concerns of his society” (Waithaka 1992:143). Mother tongue
serves as a bridge between home and school, but it is also a useful mechanism for laying the foundation
of literacy and numeracy skills in other languages. It is mainly taught as a help to learn other languages,
but it is hoped that through the mother tongue the learner will also appreciate and respect the culture and
cultural heritage of his own people. Its underlying purpose, therefore, is to pass on valuable knowledge
and culture.
While the purpose of MT instruction is clearly stated by Waithaka, the purpose for teaching Kiswahili is
not specified. Nevertheless, learners are expected to be able to hear, understand, read, write, and speak
Kiswahili after eight years of study. Since Kiswahili is the predominant language of wider communication for many people in Kenya, the underlying purpose seems to be to prepare learners to be functional
members of the wider society.
The purpose of teaching English in lower primary is to enable the learner to use English as a medium of
communication in the fourth year of primary school. At the end of primary school a learner should have
enough grasp of English to:
•
Listen, understand, and respond appropriately.
•
Be able to use correct pronunciation, stress, and intonation to be understood.
•
Be able to read and understand instructions and to read for information and pleasure.
•
Be able to write to express his ideas meaningfully and legibly in English.
To summarize, it seems that the purpose of teaching the mother tongue fits in with the goal of passing on
valuable knowledge of culture. However, preparing the learner to become a useful member of the society
appears to be the purpose of teaching Kiswahili and English as LWCs. The content of the teaching
materials used for these subjects also supports this assumption.
The implications for material development
If an outside expert were going to assist in developing materials for the subject of mother tongue in the
Kenyan education system, it would be useful to know that the main purpose of education in general is to
Agatha van Ginkel
Educational Values and Material Development
5
prepare pupils to become useful members of the society. On the other hand, the subject of mother tongue
is also seen as a valuable means to pass on general knowledge in the lower levels of primary school and
knowledge about culture. Within this context there is space for the material designer to explore possibilities to create materials that fit the underlying value of the education system. In Kenya the primary
education syllabus gives good guidelines for the content of the materials. The applications would be in
the learning activities that would be appropriate for the context. It is likely that activities where the
teacher becomes a facilitator would not be appreciated. There are, of course, more variables to consider,
such as actual teaching practice, available resources, linguistic suitability of methods, etc. But if the
underlying value is ignored by the designer, it might lead to materials that will either be rejected by the
people as being foreign, or the teachers will be creative and transform them to what they believe the
purpose of education is and teach them accordingly.
There is much more to explore in education systems. The article in Notes on Literacy 25:3–4 by Berry
(1999) about ideologies in literacy programmes touches on some issues, but it would also be useful to
explore how an education system sees the transfer of knowledge based on “knowledge centred'” and
“person centred” paradigms (Roberts 1998). This would again be useful in developing teacher-training
programmes and in designing materials.
Bibliography
Berry, K. 1999. Literacy programs: Getting the ideology right. Notes on Literacy 25:3–4.
Littlewood, W. 1991. Curriculum design. Applied linguistics and language teaching, by R. Bowers,
and C. J. Brumfit. London. Macmillan and The British Council, 11–22.
Roberts, J. 1998. Language teacher education. London: Arnold.
Waithaka, J. M. 1992. Primary education syllabus. Volume 1. Nairobi: Kenya Institute of
Education.